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Around the World in Books / France
Sex and the City of Light
A young, single American sparkles in a novel that recalls the cafés and nightclubs of Paris and Biarritz in the 1950s
In 1958 Elaine Dundy won rapturous praise for The Dud Avocado, a sparkling novel about the cultural and romantic adventures of a young American in France. Her book has rightly become a modern classic, driven by the unique voice of an endearingly impulsive heroine.
Twenty-one-year-old Sally Jay Gorce has traveled to Paris search of gaiety, laughter, and “shoes in the air” — apparently, something not unlike a Fred Astaire movie. Bankrolled by an allowance from a rich uncle, she finds all of those as she takes small acting roles and moves from cafés and nightclubs in Montparnasse to a villa near Biarritz.
Sally has a moral awakening that occurs not when she loses her virginity to an Italian diplomat — which is part of her backstory — but when she discovers that Old World glamour can mask social ruthlessness.
Groucho Marx wrote to Dundy to praise The Dud Avocado: “It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm).” Slender as it is, the book is certainly one of the most entertaining novels of the 20th century…
